Said Saffari |
Marc Pinto, head of high-grade credit research at Merrill Lynch, recalls taking part in a roadshow in the US last year for a tier-one capital-raising issue from a European bank. Merrill Lynch was co-arranging the deal with another firm. Pinto's job was to discuss the credit strengths and weaknesses of the bank with potential investors.
During the roadshow, bond spreads started to tighten to such a degree that Pinto felt there was no more left to go. "I just felt that the bull run in tier-one credit spreads had come to an end." He quickly put out a research note to investors saying as much.